Gay marriage momentum expands to 2 Midwest states

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2013 file photo supporters of gay marriage call for Minnesota lawmakers to legalize gay marriage at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn. Minnesota has a state House vote on gay marriage Thursday, May 9, 2013, and Democratic leaders are assuring passage. With the state Senate likely to follow suit, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton could be signing a bill as early as next week. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)
— AP

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2013 file photo supporters of gay marriage call for Minnesota lawmakers to legalize gay marriage at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn. Minnesota has a state House vote on gay marriage Thursday, May 9, 2013, and Democratic leaders are assuring passage. With the state Senate likely to follow suit, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton could be signing a bill as early as next week. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)
/ AP

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2013 file photo supporters of gay marriage gather to call for Minnesota lawmakers to legalize gay marriage at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn. Minnesota has a state House vote on gay marriage Thursday, May 9, 2013, and Democratic leaders are assuring passage. With the state Senate likely to follow suit, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton could be signing a bill as early as next week. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)— AP

FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2013 file photo supporters of gay marriage gather to call for Minnesota lawmakers to legalize gay marriage at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn. Minnesota has a state House vote on gay marriage Thursday, May 9, 2013, and Democratic leaders are assuring passage. With the state Senate likely to follow suit, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton could be signing a bill as early as next week. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)
/ AP

ST. PAUL, Minn. 
Just six months after Minnesota voters turned back an effort to ban gay weddings, lawmakers are poised to make the state the first in the Midwest to pass a law allowing them.

The startling shift comes amid a rapid evolution of public opinion nationally in the debate over marriage. But with Minnesota and possibly Illinois set to broaden the definition to include same-sex couples, coastal states may soon have some company in enacting changes.

In November, voters unexpectedly defeated a measure that would have banned same-sex marriage in the Minnesota Constitution, even after more than two-dozen states passed similar bans. That prompted gay marriage supporters to quickly go on offense.

Those efforts culminate Thursday with a vote in the state House that Democratic leaders assured would pass. With the state Senate expected to follow suit, Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton could sign a bill as early as next week.

"We like to lead the way in Minnesota," said state Rep. Karen Clark, the Minneapolis Democrat sponsoring the bill.

In the past week, Rhode Island and Delaware became the 10th and 11th states to approve gay marriage. But so far, only legislatures in coastal or New England states have voted affirmatively for gay marriage. Except for Iowa, which allows gay marriage due to a 2009 judicial ruling, same-sex couples can't get married in flyover country.

Minnesota might go first, but Illinois could be close behind. The state Senate there voted in February to allow same-sex marriage, and supporters think they're close to securing the votes needed to get it through the House and on to Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who says he'll sign it.

Although a few Republican politicians around the country have started to embrace gay marriage, the movement remains largely contained to states with Democrats fully in control. In the Midwest, only Illinois and Minnesota have Democratic-led statehouses. Democrats run the Nevada and New Mexico legislatures, but Republicans are governor in those states.

Democrats also control Colorado, but that state could only go as far as civil unions because of a constitutional amendment that blocks gay marriage. The same curb applies in Oregon, but a group has launched a drive to repeal the earlier ballot initiative.

Elsewhere, the political dominance of Republicans makes legalized gay marriage a difficult sell. Most of Minnesota's regional neighbors - Michigan, Wisconsin and both Dakotas - have entirely Republican power structures.

So far, only one Republican member of Minnesota's Legislature is a definite yes on gay marriage. But with the House vote looming Wednesday, the bill's backers said they would accept a handful of GOP-sponsored religious protections that could help them win over a few more Republicans.

Last fall's defeat of the gay marriage ban ended a nearly decade-long push by social conservatives for stronger prohibitions on gay marriage. But the massive activist and fundraising network built to defeat the amendment has now been harnessed to get it through the Legislature.